I ate fish for breakfast and survived

While on a visit to the Baltic area years ago, I flew with a local airline. The inflight meal was smoked fish. Probably salmon. To my very young self it looked like pungent pink slime. I refused to eat it.

Years later in Finland and Russia, every hotel we stayed in offered fish on the breakfast buffet. Again, I refused to eat it, cobbling together a rather sad breakfast using the other foods available.

I didn’t appreciate fish for breakfast on these trips, but a recent experience makes me think I just might enjoy it now.

I was on a breakfast date with my husband when he ordered a meal that I hadn’t even realized was on the menu: the ‘Cold-Smoked Salmon & Bagel with All of the Proper Garnishes.’ I ordered the incurably American egg, bacon, and potatoes plate. But when they delivered his meal, with it’s neat rows of toppings and fresh local veggies, I had to have a bite. He humored me, and the truly ridiculous fact is that I liked his food better than mine. It was light, flavorful, healthy, and beautiful. The fish was tempered by the other ingredients, creating a symphony of flavor reminiscent of Disney’s Ratatouille movie. It felt quintessentially Nordic.

The Nordics know a thing or two about good food. 

For centuries they’ve been gathering berries fresh from the forest; fishing in nearly-pristine waters; harvesting grains such as rye, barley, and oats; and farming cold-weather crops that include kale, Brussels sprouts, and cabbage.

According to the New Nordic Food brochure, “In November 2004, Nordic chefs, food writers and other food professionals gathered to discuss the potential for developing a new Nordic food culture. The meeting resulted in a 10-point manifesto outlining how best to develop this New Nordic Cuisine.” The event was spearheaded by two innovative chefs from Copenhagen’s NOMA, Rene Redzepi and Claus Meyer. The Manifesto caught on like wild fire. Chefs all over the world continue to find inspiration by using the tenets set out by this group of Nordic chefs.

The Nordic Cuisine Manifesto

1. To express the purity, freshness, simplicity and ethics that we would like to associate with our region.
2. To reflect the different seasons in the meals.
3. To base cooking on raw materials which characteristics are especially excellent in our climate, landscape and waters.
4. To combine the demand for good taste with modern knowledge about health and well-being
5. To promote the Nordic products and the variety of Nordic producers – and to disseminate the knowledge of the cultures behind them.
6. To promote the welfare of the animals and a sound production in the sea and in the cultivated as well as wild landscapes.
7. To develop new possible applications of traditional Nordic food products.
8. To combine the best Nordic cooking procedures and culinary traditions with impulses from outside.
9. To combine local self-sufficiency with regional exchange of high-quality goods.
10. To cooperate with representatives of consumers, other cooking craftsmen, agriculture, fishing industry, food industry, retail and wholesale industry, researchers, teachers, politicians and authorities on this joint project to the benefit and advantage of all in the Nordic countries.

Excerpted from the New Nordic Food brochure, © Nordic Council of Ministers, 2008. If you’d like to learn more about the New Nordic Cuisine theory, click here. 

Addressing both sustainability and ethics along with flavors and foods, the manifesto brought Nordic cuisine into the spotlight. And suddenly every notable chef was focused on creating meals that were locally sourced, sustainably farmed, and mostly organic. Sustainability became an export.

This practice also highlights unique foods and flavors found specifically in the Nordic area. The New Nordic Food brochure explains: “Fauna and flora that live and grow wild in the Nordic region have a Nordic taste and their own special character. This is why foods from these wild landscapes enjoy such high status among professional chefs today.”

Purity, simplicity and freshness. Ingredients based on the current season. Ethics in food. Pretty impressive and very Nordic. 

What did I learn from this?

Food that is beautiful, fresh, and full of flavor can convince us to eat healthy.